The deputy who welcomed Theo in to wait for her was Deputy Washington, a reedy black man with grizzled grey hair who had been her father's partner. It seemed wrong to her, sometimes, that she should be Sheriff, but he was comfortable doing the job he'd done for 18 years and had no desire to deal with the political half of her job. Still, she greeted him, poured him a cup of coffee. He was all but her uncle, and damned if she wouldn't show him the respect he deserved. He'd still forgotten a lot more about this job than she knew, in some ways, and they'd spent many a long hour talking things over into the night. He had perspective she would only gain once her hair was as grey as his was.

Middle aged was middle aged, but Elders were Elders.

She poured a cup for herself, and offered one to Theo. Then she pulled on gloves so she could handle the book without potentially contaminating the evidence any more than it had been contaminated by its journey, its very nature.

"I've a person of interest," she told him. "Do you remember running into a blonde fellow with a snake tattoo on his arm? From here to here?"

Theo had grabbed the cup of coffee apprehensively, as a drowning man could reach for anything solid-looking in sight.
"Not... really?" Seemingly puzzled by her question. "Who is that? Do you still need the book?" A hand running to his rucksack.

Readily, he extracted a book from his rucksack; a book covered with green wrapping paper.
"She's... under observation. They didn't tell everything, I'm not family". He put the book on the desk, pushed it gently towards Justine. "How can I know something more? Can you get to know how she's doing?"

Justine pulled on gloves and slipped the book into an evidence bag. After sealing it, she pushed her glasses up on her nose.

"I'll call in the morning," she says kindly. "They might not give me a full update either, but I'll see what I can do. And I'll call you. If I learn anything, you'll learn something."

I'll need to interview her anyway, so they'll have to at least let me know when she's well enough for me to talk to. If she ever is-- I hope those drugs haven't sent her on a lifelong tour of Crazytown.

Out loud she said, "Go get some rest, Theo. You've had a rough day. I appreciate all your help and cooperation."

He nodded. "Please let me know!" Looking at her hesitantly, he moved on his seat as to get up. If nothing else was needed, he'd greet and walk away, checking his phone as soon as it could be done without being overtly rude.

Photo Credits - The photos and patterns used for this theme come from a variety of sources and authors, and were published under a Creative Commons licence. While not all of them required attribution, credits will be provided regardless, both out of gratitude and to give people the chance to view them in their original version if they like. All pictures have been cropped, resized and either desaturated or recoloured to fit the theme's necessities.
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